Best way to start

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French_guy

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Jul 15, 2018
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Michigan
I'm more and more interested into pcp airguns, and was wondering what the best way to start might be
I know I don't want to start with a manual pump....but cost of SCBA tanks is kind of high. And I don't see myself taking a compressor such as the Yong Heng to the shooting range
So what is the best way to start? I know I have a dive shop close to where I live, but I don't know if they can fill up to 4500 psi (and how much it would cost per fill)
But assuming they can, where is the best place to get SCBA tanks (45 min seems to be the best compromise?) at a decent price? What else would I need (valve?)
In terms of rifles...............I'm not sure: I like the look of the Hatsan Airmax, or the Walther Reign.....
Last question: for target shooting only (25 to 50 yards - no hunting nor pest control), what is the best caliber ?
Thanks
 
Great questions! As far as caliper I would recommend .22, ammo is cheap & plentiful. The biggest question
is how to fill your gun? Well some use a hand pump. There cheap but alot of work. So if you plan on shooting
at the range you have two choices. A tank or a portable air compressor that can be run off your car battery.
Now that is what you must decide. If it were me I would go the portible compressor. Hope I helped.

Fly
 
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Get a conventional rifle with the magazine in front of your ears, along with the cocking mechanism, don't want to reach way back to cock the rife each time
Get .177 caliber if your into target, cheap and accurate and helps you fill the tank less
Consider a rifle that has easy access to parts and repair
Get a Scope that will focus down to 10 yards to infinity
Get a bypod to ditch the sand bags along with a rear monopod
I have had a compressor from day one and works for me but a tank would be nice if your only at the range
 
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I just took possession of an Air Arms s500 Extra FAC as my first pcp, literally an hour ago.
A hand pump arrived yesterday.

I chose a 22 as this will be used for target and pest sniping. It’s a single shot, but that’s fine with me and consistent with all my other air guns.

I wanted to avoid the price point guns and found this used for $500.

6098A357-E3FA-4BBC-B8C2-0F7E05E45392.jpeg
 
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As long as you are physically OK, I would start with a hand pump. That is what I did. I got a Marauder Pistol, Prod, first. It only stores 66cc of air and can only be charged to 3000 psi. So it's easy to pump it back up (about 30 pumps). Very accurate. It's a 22. I get about 30 shots on a fill. I pumped it for months before getting a YH and then a used SCBA tank. I bought an expired SCBA tank for about $100 and spent more than that for the fill set. There are cheap chinese fill sets but the one I got leaked too much to be used. You can only use an expired SCBA tank if you have your own compressor to fill it. If you want a dive shop to fill it, you need to get one that has some years left. That increases the price. The fewer years left the lower the price. I like filling from the tank a lot more than hand pumping. But hand pumping worked fine and got me shooting before I decided to spend the money to get the compressor and tank. I'm keeping my hand pumps in case my compressor breaks or I want to take them with me so I can fill away from home without taking the tank.

A small compressor that can be used on 120 or 12 volts is another way to go. They take about 10 times as long to fill a gun as my YH takes and can't reasonably fill a bottle. But if you just want to fill your gun without hand pumping and are willing to tolerate the noise they create every time you fill, it could be the best option for you.
 
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if the tank isnt physically damaged, gouged etc, theyre good for 30 years from all ive read .. i picked a firemans 45min tank up with valve for cheap on ebay and its been fine .. so a yongheng, and your down to rifle .. most pcps are pretty good to 50y, but if you want pellet on pellet accuracy youll need to go high end, crown etc... most midrange price guns will be around 1" at 50, some better depending on individual gun ..
 
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Air supply should be your first priority. It wasn’t mine and when it came time to address the air supply issue I found myself feeling trapped. I immediately discounted hand pumping because it was apparent the wife and I are high volume shooters. That left expensive options only. I opted for a 74 cf tank. It was a chunk of money but I needed to make sure we had plenty of air for a full weekend.
Now we have a small AC/DC compressor and use the tank as a back up.
If you are the only one shooting and have a gun that was easy on air, hand pumping may work for you. Otherwise with an air stingy gun I would go for a small or medium sized tank.
 
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French_guy said:
Do gun (or at least some) come with detachable bottle? then you could have several with you, pre-charged at home with a hand pump or small compressor?
For example, a 0.177 rifle that would do 40 good shots with 1 bottle, and you have 4 bottle --> It means you go to the range for a 160 rounds shooting session. Does it make sense?
Click to expand...
If the tank is expired, it can be pressure tested and re-certified for a small charge. Sounds like you have access to a dive shop, and I recommend that as your air source. It's cheap to refill, it's good, dry air, and it avoids the labor of pumping. A small compressor is always an option. I don't have experience with them, and I just prefer not dealing with high pressure air, although I'm sure if done properly it's very safe. Yes, many bottle rifles use easily removable bottles, but they aren't cheap.
 
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'Air Anxiety' is a very real issue for almost all airgunners. Although a few are just fine with hand pumping. But as shooting volume goes up, hand pumping - at least in my view - becomes much less desirable, and overly time consuming. I find that I can easily go through 1/2 tin of pellets or more during a shooting session of a couple of hours, and the limiting factor there is air.

Having multiple bottles or cylinders which you can charge at home and then take to the range and 'hot swap' onto your gun is actually a very expensive solution. Manufacturers get a lot for the small bottles or cylinders, and by the time you maybe have bought 2 of them, you've already paid the same as you would for a big bottle.

I recommend to others to start off with an inexpensive compressor which will directly fill your gun. Experienced airgunners will know that such inexpensive pumps can be very hit-or-miss regarding their initial quality, and longevity. That is why most recommend that you pay the $30-$40 extra at purchase to get a 3-4 year extended warranty which covers break-down and also the cost of return shipping your broken compressor. By the time your first inexpensive compressor fails, you will truly understand how much you are shooting your airgun, and therefore how much quality and capacity you want from your next compressor. Something like a (relatively) inexpensive GX air cooled compressor might be a good way to start. I have a friend who is using his to fill the 580cc bottles on his and his wife's Crowns when needed (when he is not at my house or up at the big range, where there are larger compressors available). He hasn't yet had any issues with his little GX, but we all know that they are inevitable, and he is covered by the extended warranty through Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/GX-Portable-Compressor-Oil-Free-Paintball/dp/B07XYRS15R/

The right gun is a much more wide-open topic. Guns of different price points may well have different levels of inherent accuracy. Certain guns will also be more enjoyable to shoot as compared to others, and unfortunately such joy (smooth actions, nice triggers, good shot count, good handling, nice finishing, adjustability and reliability) can be directly proportional to price paid.

But the bottom line in my opinion is that accuracy is most impacted by the shooter themself, and there is no substitute for trigger time!

I would likely avoid the really lowest end guns, especially those fabricated in China (too much variability from one unit to the next), and at least start with a mid-level gun. Or a higher level gun which you may find used (like the AA S500, posted above). You are starting out with PCP airguns, and you don't yet know how deeply the hook will be set in you once you start shooting. Get a 'good' gun which won't be frustrating to shoot, get some trigger time, and only then will you know where you really want to go in PCP air gunning in the future.
 
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I started with break barrel springer, then break barrel gas piston. I became obsessed with getting the red out target shooting and no matter what, at 30 yards I could not get a 5 shot group with the break barrels. Enter the PCP, which in my case was the Benjamin Armada 22 cal. This gun is a tack driver at 30 yards, but then I wanted to reach out to 50-100 yards and this gun, unless I wanted to put alot of mods in, fell far short on accuracy after about 40 yards. At this point I was researching another PCP and my search came down to FX Maverick or an Edgun. The deciding factor came when I watched interviews of both company founders. I found that Edgun was very cavalier and not as accepting when it came to customer feedback or what the customer wanted to see in a PCP whereas FX was just the opposite. So I went with FX and now have a 22 and 30 cal Mavericks and looking to get one chambered in .177..

Now as for air, I bought two industrial sized 444cf cylinders and had my local welding co. fill them with 4500 PSI of dry air. I researched compressors and concluded that they can be a source of constant maintenance. In addition to the large cylinders, I pack a 100cf tank with me when I goto the range and I can literally be at the range all afternoon shooting my 22 and 30 cal without dropping much below 250 bar. This to me has been been the best for me and is not the best way togo for others as the large cylinders weigh 180# empty and u must be fit in order to load and transport for filling. When I get them filled again, it will be with nitrogen. Fills cost about $40 per tank and last months.

As for the quality and accuarcy of the Mavericks, I believe, for the money, these rifles out perform FX flagship rifles hands down. I have my 22 tuned to shoot anything from a cheapo Crosman 14.3gr to Javelin 30gr. from 20 to 100 yards very accurate.
 
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French_guy said:
Do gun (or at least some) come with detachable bottle? then you could have several with you, pre-charged at home with a hand pump or small compressor?
For example, a 0.177 rifle that would do 40 good shots with 1 bottle, and you have 4 bottle --> It means you go to the range for a 160 rounds shooting session. Does it make sense?
Click to expand...
What TMH above said - they're not cheap. The 300cc bottle on my FX costs $250.
 
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The FX guns have detachable bottles with self sealing valves in them so they can be swapped out under pressure. But the damn things are ridiculously expensive. I found a 100cf tank on sale which is what I use at the range. When I'm hunting, I would never go through enough ammo to need air in the field, but I do have an extra small bottle, 300cc, left over when I converted my 22 compact to a sniper with a 580cc bottle. I take it with me when I'm hunting with the 30 cal. but I've never needed to swap it out in the field.
 
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